Recently in Biography Category

The Paul Smith Library of Southern York County will collect new and used paperback books during November for shipment to American troops overseas.

The library is one of several collection points for the Sertoma Club's book drive for Operation Paperback, a Pennsylvania non-profit that has shipped nearly one million books to troops over the last decade. Other local drop-off sites include the YMCA Southern Branch and the Mason-Dixon Public Library.

Donations should be marked for Operation Paperback and dropped off during normal library hours.

The Paul Smith Library is at 80 Constitution Ave. in Shrewsbury.

A review from reader Loretta Martin:

When a news alert flashed on CNN on June 13, 2005, announcing that a jury had reached a verdict in Jackson's molestation trial, Halperin thought American legal history was about to be made. He was sure justice would be served, that this would not be another O.J. Simpson travesty where a celebrity had gotten away with murder.

From the Associated Press:

LONDON -- She was known for much of her life as the queen mother. And according to her official biography, she detested it.

"Horrible name," she wrote in a 1953 letter to her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, died in 2002 at the advanced age of 101. The official account of her life by royal biographer William Shawcross runs past 1,000 pages and divulges the queen mother's opinions on topics ranging from feminism to homeopathy.

This is a must-have for the Beatles fan, edited by June Skinner Sawyers; Penguin books paperback.

Think of this book as an MP3 version of the Beatles story. It's made up of bits and pieces, lots of them, from interviews the Beatles gave, to excerpts of their biographies and reviews of their music. A few writers even touch on WHAT IT ALL MEANS. In short, there is something for everyone.

and that definitely applies to book lovers.

The following Web sites offer used books for purchase or exchange, some for as little as the postage to ship them.

Check them out, and if you know of any others, please let us know.

www.bookmooch.com

www.bookins.com

www.swaptree.com

www.paperbackswap.com

As a Beatles fan, I open every book about the group or its members with anticipation. So it was with John Lennon The Life. I was not disappointed.

Baron von Steuben's drilling of Continental Army soldiers prepared George Washington's army during the dark days of the American Revolution in Valley Forge.

But no authoritative biography has been written on Steuben since 1937. Until recently.

Paul Lockhart's "The Drillmaster of Valley Forge" is a fresh look at the Prussian military man and offer glimpses into the York County scene, where the Continental Congress was then meeting.

For more on Lockhart's work on Steuben, see York Town Square post: York-commissioned Baron von Steuben credited with shaping up Continental Army.

Educational publishing house WorldScapes has released a book on Special Olympian Loretta Claiborne called "In Her Stride."

The life and accomplishments of York native Loretta Claiborne are profiled in the brief book "In Her Stride."

For more, check out York Town Square post : York native and Special Olympian Loretta Claiborne: 'Role model for others with disabilities'.

that books make great gifts, but now we can listen to famous authors tell us why.

John Gartner, assistant professor of medical psychology at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, has written "In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography."

Gartner is also the author of "The Hypomanic Edge."

In his new book, Gartner attempts to show that Clinton has a hypomanic temperament which helps explain both his charisma and his reckless impulsive behavior.

Mary Hamilton's "Rising from the Wilderness," a biography about controversial newspaper owner J.W. Gitt, won the American Journalism Historians Award for Best Book in Media History published in 2007. The book was published by the York County Heritage Trust.

I am on a memoir kick. I just go to the library and scan the shelf until something pops out at me. This time it was "All Over But the Shoutin'" by Rick Bragg.

The name Bragg is familiar to journalists, especially feature writers. His works covers the pages of journalism compilations. And, yes, he was also accused of plagiarism in 2003. But he is a brilliant writer.

He chronicles the story of his poverty ridden life sans his father in Alabama. He just has this way of describing situations without using cliches. And it's just the right balance. If it hadn't been a library book, I would have highlighted dozens of sentences.

Like the one that said the snowflakes were murdered by the warmth on the sidewalk. That's just brilliant. We all think of snowflakes melting, but not getting murdered by warmth.

Because of high demand, Epicenter Press has rushed to produce a paperback edition of the biography of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, The New York Times reports.
Selected by Sen. John McCain as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, Palin's story is told in "Sarah" by Kaylene Johnson.
After producing the books in an 18-hour digital printing job, the publisher delivered 40,000 copies to its distributor on Tuesday. By midafternoon, the hardcover edition of "Sarah" ranked 54th on Amazon.com.

Barnes&Noble.com has added three new features to its Barnes & Noble Studio multimedia site that are well worth a look.

In Guest Books, found out what writers read as authors talk about their top three favorite books. David Sedaris is featured this week.

5 Books selects five titles that will help readers sharpen their skills on a particular topic. Read all about wine.

The Book Files tells the story behind the book. This week’s featured book is James Joyce’s “The Dubliners.” Upcoming are Jerzy Kosinski’s “The Steps” and Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Visit http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-studio/videos-podcasts/index.asp?.

Daisy Myers' "Sticks 'N Stones," Mary Hamilton's "Rising from the Wilderness," and Carol McCleary Innerst's "York College of Pennsylvania" are three books that merit reading this summer - or any time of year.

For more details, see: Central Pennsylvania histories make smart part of summer reading stack over at sister blog, York Town Square.

Sometimes, as much as we hate it, we have to part with our books.

What else can we do when there just isn't enough shelf space for all our recent purchases?

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

While my husband watches basketball on television, my nose is in a book.

But now I’ve discovered that we literary types can get hyped with a March Madness of our own.

“Wonderful Tonight -- George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me” by Pattie Boyd with Penny Junor.

Pattie Boyd was married to two of the biggest rock stars and was the subject of the hit songs, “Something,” “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight,” but her life, as she writes in her autobiography, doesn’t seem particularly charmed.

First of all, her childhood was rocked by her parents’ strange marriage, her father’s and later her stepfather’s infidelity and several moves to different countries and cities and schools.

“Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles, Britain, and America” by Jonathan Gould.

Since today is the 44th anniversary of the Beatles arrival in the United States on Feb. 7, 1964, I’m posting a review of a new Beatles book I just read.
When I, a true Beatlemaniac, started reading “Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles, Britain, and America” by Jonathan Gould, I was wondering if I’d learn anything new. I’ve read dozens of articles and books about the group, including Bob Spitz’s excellent biography, “The Beatles,” and the Anthology by the Beatles themselves.
But “Can’t Buy Me Love” gave me plenty new to think about.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

On Feb. 12, HarperCollins will publish a memoir and policy book by former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, finished only a week before her assassination.

According to the Associated Press:

The publication of “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West” has “the full support of her family and advisers,” according to a statement issued today by HarperCollins.

“No one could have known that these would be Benazir Bhutto’s final words, and somehow that makes them carry even more weight, especially at a time like this,” said HarperCollins Executive Editor Tim Duggan. “This book is her legacy.”

Bhutto, a rival of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, died Dec. 27 in a suicide bombing and shooting in the city of Rawalpindi. Bhutto was a pro-U.S. moderate who had vowed to fight Islamic extremists if elected in an upcoming parliamentary vote.

The book will include an afterword by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her three children.

It’s hard to ignore the legacy of The Clash. Countless bands from the 1980s to the present can point to them as their greatest influence. They’re widely considered the greatest punk band ever and “London Calling” is among the greatest rock albums of all time.

And, with a nod to the other members of the band, frontman Joe Strummer remains the face of the band that took the U.K. and then the U.S. by storm in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

In his definitive biography of the late Strummer, Chris Salewicz draws from source material that includes his own vast memories of Strummer to countless music magazine clippings to interviews with nearly every single key player in Strummer’s life. “Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer” paints a truly definitive picture of the man who was born John Graham Mellor in 1952.